A trailer is a small vehicle designed to be pulled by another, usually larger, powered vehicle. It is used for transporting goods, animals or equipment that cannot be transported in the leading vehicle. It is also used as a promotional tool or an advertisement for movies, television shows or video games.
It’s an important piece of the marketing puzzle for any movie or television show and it can have a huge impact on whether or not people will go to see it. Creating one requires a lot of skill and creativity, and the process is becoming more and more complex as technology advances. In addition, the use of trailers has spread beyond movies and now can be seen for virtually any sort of creative project.
A film trailer is a shortened version of the actual movie and is often a key part of the marketing campaign for the feature film. It is created by a team of editors working from rushes or dailies and may contain footage that is not included in the final edit. There are dozens of companies in the United States that specialize in the creation of film trailers.
For many viewers, the movie trailer is the first introduction to a particular film and can set the tone for their expectations. This is why it’s so important that trailers are well-made and convey the right kind of information about the film. The movie industry has been using trailers for decades to promote upcoming releases, and it has become a huge part of the overall film experience.
There is a lot of room for innovation in the way that trailers are made, and some very creative and interesting techniques have been utilized. For example, the 2007 collaboration between Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, Grindhouse, included five fake trailers between their double-billed features. These were not only meta-explorations of the film genre but also directorial experiments in the art of trailer-making and they generated a cult following upon their release on YouTube.
Trailers are a powerful marketing tool that can make or break a film’s success. They are so ubiquitous that they’re almost invisible, but when done well, a great trailer can draw audiences into the theater or onto the couch to watch a new movie. There are so many different ways that trailers can be used today, from teasers on Facebook with a countdown to the release date to full-length videos in the style of a Hollywood movie poster.
There is no question that trailers are here to stay, and it will be fascinating to see how the art of creating them evolves as technology continues to develop. It will be interesting to see if, for example, publishers are willing to continue to make trailers for books that are the wrong medium for them, directed at the wrong audience, and performed in a language they haven’t yet learned to speak.